Marcia Anderson

Biography

Marcia Anderson is a Senior Community Faculty Member in the College of Individualized Studies. She was named Director Emerita after retiring from her position as Director of the Student-Directed Learning (SDL) Office in July 2021.

Anderson has taught a variety of courses in her decades-long career at the university, including the Perspectives 301: Educational Philosophy and Planning course or Theory Seminar, for Individualized BA students; Metro 100: Getting Credit for What You Know and for Student-Directed Learning; and Metro 101: Your Academic Journey, for students new to university education.

She helped to found and was the interim director of the system-wide Credit for Prior Learning Assessment Network (C-PLAN) in 2018-2019. She worked previously as an Individualized BA professional staff advisor, and as an admissions counselor. Her early career included work in the university's publications office as an academic editor, and in community journalism reporting and editing work with neighborhood and special-interest publications, including the Minnesota Women Press, which she helped to found.

The Minnesota State Board of Trustees awarded Anderson its statewide Excellence in Service Award in 2021, for Administrative and Service Faculty employees. The university previously presented her the Carol C. Ryan Outstanding Advisor Award in 1990, and the Outstanding Teacher Award in 1988 for PRSP 301.

Anderson earned a BA from Metro State in 1977 with an individualized focus in community journalism, and an MA in adult learning and development from St. Mary's University in 1991.

She continues to work to expand adult, student-directed, and lifelong-learning opportunities for all, and to promote academic assessment and recognition of learning from diverse settings, experiences, communities, and cultures.

In her own lifelong learning, she explores learning through travel and cultural engagement, and the study of political/social justice and problem-solving; gardening, horticulture, and nature/climate advocacy; and family/social history and genealogy.